By Mansoor Laghari, US Army veteran
The first political prisoner I ever knew was my father.
He spent nearly three decades behind bars because he defended peasants, political dissidents and religious minorities in Sindh. He believed that the dignity of a Hindu laborer, a Christian family or a Muslim reformer did not depend on the approval of the state or the religious majority. He was imprisoned, tortured and ultimately died in government custody.
Growing up around that struggle taught me something no classroom could: extremists rarely reveal their final destination. They begin with one enemy, one minority and one acceptable target. Once society tolerates that hatred, the circle expands.
Years later, I came to the United States as a political refugee, became an American citizen and served in the U.S. Army. I did so because I believed America was different. Here, the Constitution places citizenship above tribe, law above religious authority and individual liberty above ideological obedience.
That inheritance is now under pressure from an ideological convergence many Americans still underestimate: the alliance between the revolutionary far left and political Islamism. It is often called the Red-Green Alliance.
Its factions disagree about religion, sexuality and economics, but increasingly share the same targets: American power, Western institutions, capitalism, traditional faith and the legitimacy of the democratic order.
An Alliance Built on Common Enemies
“Red” refers to revolutionary movements rooted in Marxism, socialism and hostility toward Western institutions. “Green” does not mean Islam or ordinary Muslims. It means Islamism, the political project of placing religious power above democratic pluralism and individual freedom.
These movements should be natural enemies. The radical left presents itself as secular, feminist and supportive of LGBTQ rights. Islamists often reject those principles. Yet alliances are not always built on shared values. They are often built on shared enemies.
Both sides portray America as an imperial project rather than an imperfect constitutional republic.
Both reduce complex societies to oppressors and oppressed.
Both treat Western institutions as guilty until dismantled. Israel has become a powerful mobilizing symbol, but the deeper target is the political confidence and social cohesion of the United States.
The Battle Has Entered American Politics
This ideology is no longer confined to campus seminars. It is entering mainstream political life. The Democratic Party remains broad, and many Democrats reject antisemitism, revolutionary socialism and political Islamism. But an increasingly influential progressive faction now treats these ideas as legitimate components of the party’s future.
The rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shows that democratic socialism and hardline anti-Israel politics are no longer marginal in America’s largest city.
His national profile, and his demand that the federal government enforce an International Criminal Court warrant against Israel’s prime minister, have forced Democrats to confront the direction of their activist wing. The Associated Press reported on his position and the legal limits of a city mayor’s authority.
The concern is larger than one mayor or one party. Ideas incubated in universities and activist networks eventually influence city governments, congressional offices, public agencies and national-security institutions.
Americans should debate these ideas openly but stop pretending that hostility toward the country’s constitutional and strategic foundations is merely youthful idealism.
Jews Are the Warning, Not the Final Target
Antisemitism is often the first warning because it is one of history’s most adaptable conspiracy theories. Today, its language is frequently presented as anti-Zionism, but the pattern is recognizable when Jewish students are collectively blamed, intimidated or told that their safety depends on denouncing Israel.
The victims do not end with Jews. Christians in Nigeria face killings, kidnappings and attacks by extremist and other armed groups. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom describes conditions there as particularly severe, noting that Christians, Muslims and traditional believers are all attacked while authorities repeatedly fail to hold perpetrators accountable.
In Pakistan, blasphemy laws, mob violence and forced conversions endanger Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and dissenting Muslims. USCIRF’s 2026 Pakistan report documented continuing reports of forced conversions among Christian and Hindu girls.
Moderate Muslims are also abandoned. Reformers, journalists and women’s-rights advocates often face threats from extremists while receiving little practical Western support.
As a Muslim who has challenged extremism publicly, I know the cost of that silence. A movement that excuses Islamists while ignoring their Muslim victims is protecting an ideology, not defending minorities.
China and Iran Benefit From American Confusion
The Red-Green Alliance is a domestic ideological phenomenon, but America’s foreign adversaries know how to exploit it. China and Iran do not share the same political theology, yet both benefit from weakening the American-led order.
A 2026 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission fact sheet concluded that China helps Iran mitigate sanctions through trade, financial networks, technology transfers and dual-use commerce. China receives energy and geopolitical leverage. Iran receives revenue, diplomatic cover and access that helps sustain its missile, drone and proxy infrastructure.
Beijing does not need to endorse Tehran’s theology. It only needs Iran to consume American attention, pressure U.S. allies and disrupt global commerce. This is modern strategic competition: economic pressure, proxy warfare, propaganda and social division working together.
Military Readiness Begins at Home
As a U.S. Army veteran, I learned that readiness is not measured only by weapons, aircraft or troop numbers. It also depends on national cohesion, public trust and citizens willing to serve.
A military cannot remain fully effective if young Americans are taught that patriotism is shameful, service is complicity and their country is uniquely evil.
The U.S. Army War College has examined the connection between patriotism, trust in the military and willingness among younger Americans to serve. Its analysis of declining patriotism and military recruitment should be read as a national-security warning.
America’s adversaries understand that a divided nation is harder to mobilize during a crisis. Social fragmentation affects recruiting, retention, civil-military trust and the public endurance required for prolonged conflict.
Information warfare is therefore not secondary to military competition. It is one of its central fronts.
America Must Defend Its Constitutional Center
This is not an argument against Muslims, immigrants, socialists or criticism of American and Israeli governments. I am a Muslim immigrant and a political dissident. Free speech, lawful protest and rigorous criticism are essential parts of American democracy.
But democracy also requires moral clarity. Americans should distinguish Islam from Islamism, legitimate criticism from antisemitism and reform from revolutionary destruction. They should defend Jewish citizens, speak honestly about persecuted Christians and support moderate Muslims confronting extremism within their own communities.
The United States should also recognize social cohesion as a strategic asset. Civic education, religious liberty, support for military service and confidence in constitutional institutions are not sentimental luxuries. They are components of national power.
My father believed tyranny survives when decent people convince themselves that someone else will confront it. I came to America because I believed this country was worth defending. I still believe that.
The question is no longer whether this ideological struggle has reached the United States. It has.
The question is whether Americans will recognize it before the next generation inherits a country that no longer recognizes itself.
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Mansoor Laghari is a U.S. Army veteran, human-rights activist and founder of the Global Youth Unity Project. A Muslim advocate for interfaith cooperation, he writes about national security, religious freedom, antisemitism and counter-extremism.
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